The National Traffic Safety Highway Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new containment test for curtain air bags. This test, as of the initial filing date of this application has yet to be formally established. This test predicts the effectiveness of a curtain air bag when struck by an occupant of a vehicle during an accident involving a side crash or vehicle roll-over event.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will require automakers to equip all vehicles with side curtain air bags that provide head and torso protection in side-impact crashes by 2013. NHTSA released the new standards stating that the air bags are expected to save 311 lives annually and prevent 361 serious injuries, especially brain injuries, in crashes that often occur when a vehicle runs a stop sign at an intersection.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said. NHTSA estimates that the rules will add about $33 to the cost of a vehicle. Side-impact passenger vehicle crashes are often severe. They account for 28 percent of all fatalities, the majority of which involve a brain injury. Safety advocates have long urged NHTSA to require automakers to do more to protect motorists in side crashes. For the first time, NHTSA will also require automakers to provide head protection for rear seat passengers in any crash. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has reported that its research demonstrates that head-protecting air bags reduced driver deaths by 52 percent in sport utility vehicles and 37 percent in passenger cars.
NHTSA initially first proposed side-impact standards in May 2004, roughly six months after automakers voluntarily agreed to install side air bags by 2009. Automakers will now have to build vehicles to protect people from side-impact collisions not only with other vehicles but also with stationary objects (such as trees and other objects on the road). Vehicles will be subjected to a tougher performance test including: dynamic pole tests, representing side-impact crashes with stationary objects, vehicle roll-over test and movable deforming barrier (MDB) tests, replicating side-impact crashes with other vehicles. Previously NHTSA tested using only MDB tests.
An added benefit of some head protection air bags is that they help reduce injury and the potential for ejection during a rollover accident. Air bags that have a rollover feature differ from the standard type in two ways. First, the air bag stays inflated longer to compensate for the extended time period in this type of accident, and second, a sensor assesses when a vehicle is about to roll over even if no collision is involved.
A typical side-impact crash takes about 60 milliseconds from start to finish, while a rollover collision can last multiple seconds.
Some curtain-style air bags with rollover protection retain about 80 percent of their inflation for about 5 seconds—about three consecutive rolls of a vehicle. Air bags designed for rollover protection are slightly larger than non-rollover curtain designs. Air bag designed for rollover protection typically covers the entire window, which helps to decrease the chances of an occupant being ejected from the vehicle.
Statistics show that vehicle rollovers constitute only 3 percent of passenger vehicle crashes, but they are the most deadly.
These statistics show that the evolution of the side curtain air bag from a primary purpose head injury protection device to a combinational device capable of protecting not only the head but also to mitigate the potential for ejecting an occupant from a vehicle is needed.
The prior art has several side curtain air bags with a tensioning band feature to prevent an occupant from being hurled from a vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,671 teaches such a device. The tensioning band feature is positioned in a lower edge of a side curtain air bag and upon air bag deployment the tension band is tightened and later released after about 7 seconds to allow an occupant to escape the vehicle.
The tension band as taught in this prior art is woven externally through holes in the lower fabric of the side curtain air bag.
This design while an improvement does not optimize the overall design of the side curtain air bag and it fails to provide adequate head injury protection.
The present invention as described hereafter provides an improved side curtain air bag with marked improvements in both head injury protection and integrated containment and ejection mitigation countermeasures designed directly into the air bag assembly as well as the inflatable cushion portions of the air bag.